Saint John's Bread and Life, established in 1982, is the
largest emergency food provider in Brooklyn. Last year, the organization served
more than 1 million hot meals. Making and delivering all of that food requires
a multitude of volunteers. Butler is a champion of human rights and justice, and he
hopes that each of those volunteers leaves Saint John's with a specific idea:
“The notion that we have to connect with our neighbors," he says.

Change Through Food

To call Saint John's Bread and Life a soup kitchen is a
disservice.

Anthony Butler

The organization deploys a mobile soup kitchen twice daily,
five days a week, to bring hot meals to local neighborhoods. A food pantry
offers take-home goods. On site, there are medical, immigration and
identification card services, and those without permanent living arrangements
can use the Saint John's address as their own for mail and official forms. The
facility is also equipped with a library, computer lab and teaching kitchen,
which offers healthy cooking classes.

“We do a lot of work with people, teaching them better
eating habits and how to prepare food at home,” says Butler, who adds that 20 percent of New York City's population lives below the poverty level.

“There are cognitive issues related to (lack of) food, and
there's a lot of evidence that shows that poor nutrition in the early years
causes damage that's not correctable," he says.

Are the lessons working?

Butler, who says most of the cooking class students are
mothers, thinks so. “And the way that we drive them is really to get food their
kids are going to eat — and as a parent, that's always a battle.”

Turkey Day

Bread and Life makes an enormous impact in the lives of the
disadvantaged. So why did the organization skip the big turkey dinner last
Thanksgiving? “From a tactical point of view, Thanksgiving's the one time
in this country that it's not hard to find a meal,” Butler explains. “There are
so many churches and community centers doing it that we do it the day before.”

And when Butler hosts a party, he does it right. Sports
figures like the Brooklyn Nets serve food. Music makes the atmosphere festive.
And an army of volunteers ensures there's plenty of food to go around, even
though close to 3,000 hot meals were served for the pre-Thanksgiving celebration
last year.

During dinner at Saint John's, volunteers are encouraged to
mingle to help dispel the sense of “other.” “One of the dangers of any kind of emergency feeding program
is that they're rather hierarchical,” Butler says.

A Time for Giving?

Thanksgiving volunteers and lavish holiday meals, of course,
are a wonderful thing. “Folks who don't have much should be able to have nice
days, not just subsistence days,” Butler says.

With the holidays flush with volunteers inspired to give,
Butler hopes people remember hard times don't end after December.

“I just try to remind people that, on January 1, this hunger
problem is still around,” he says. “Hopefully they can take away a sense of
connection with these folks who are receiving the food on that day. Something
that may spark some sense of obligation down the road.”

Connections happen. Teenagers who served food on
Thanksgiving organized a fundraiser for Saint John's over spring break, says
Butler, who has advice for anyone who feels similarly compelled
to volunteer.

“What they've really got to do is take stock of themselves
and see how they can make a difference, not how to get something out of it,” he
says. “And if they make a difference, they will get something out of it.”

The best way to make an impact, says Butler, is to connect
with other people — particularly those with whom you might not normally
associate. “I think that's the only way things are going to change,” he
said. “You only help the people you know.”

Get Wired

Connection is one of the ideas behind DoSomething.org's
“Grandparents Gone Wired” program, which promotes civic responsibility by encouraging youth to help elders learn
how to stay technologically connected. Grandparents Gone Wired is a
partnership with Mentor Up, an AARP reverse-mentoring program.

“It's one of my favorite campaigns and a family-friendly,
holiday-centric way of giving that doesn't require a lot of money,” says Naomi
Hirabayashi, chief marketing officer of the organization. “This way, you can give the gift of helping your neighbor or
your own grandparents get set up on technology and stay connected, and fight
feelings of isolation," she says. "But it doesn't require a dollar —
it's just sharing something you know.”

One in four Americans between the ages of 50 and 64 don’t know how to use the Internet, although studies show that, particularly in a fast-paced world where
family members are often separated by distance, having online access
can help curb depression.

Kyle McVea, one of the program's youth volunteers, taught a
woman in his community how to use eBay to help her earn a little extra cash.

"My mentee had fun and learned a lot," he says.
"She was excited to sell some things, but more excited to buy other
peoples stuff ... She couldn't believe someone was selling their cat like
that.”

An Appetite for Change

Few efforts illustrate the power of connection better than Operation Turkey,
which was started by Richard M. Bagdonas in 2000. Now, bolstered by an army of
helpers, the program provides meals to the homeless each Thanksgiving.

Brian Tolbert, executive director for Operation
Turkey, says Bagdonas was moved by the sense of abundance Thanksgiving
often inspires. With more food than his appetite could handle one
Thanksgiving evening, Bagdonas hit the streets of Austin, Texas, laden with leftovers
and looking to save someone's holiday. But he was completely unprepared for the
emotional impact of his act.

“He found a man in a wheelchair on one of the streets
downtown,” said Tolbert. “He went over to give the meal to that man, who couldn't talk and couldn't hear.”

He was also unable to feed himself. “But the homeless guy next to him said 'thank you' and
helped feed the meal to the man,” Bagdonas writes in a testimonial on Operation
Turkey's website. “Afterwards, I sat in my car and cried, and I knew I wanted to
do something about it."

Tolbert adds, “(Bagdonas) just started inviting friends and family, and
each year this organization literally doubled in the size of numbers of people
who want to feed the homeless and less fortunate.”

This Thanksgiving, Operation Turkey will deliver at least
8,000 boxed turkey dinners in Austin alone. In its 13 years, Operation Turkey has
spread to other metropolitan areas in Texas and beyond. The organization, which is completely volunteer-run, hosts a
day-before-Thanksgiving tailgate party, where more than 1,000 pounds of potatoes
are boiled and more than 500 donated turkeys are pit-smoked.

“We don't hold back,” says Tolbert, laughing.

The organization also doesn't turn away volunteers. By early
November, the organization had more than 7,000 registered volunteers. “We get
on Thanksgiving day, in Austin alone, somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 volunteers
that actually show up to work,” Tolbert adds.

He says Operation Turkey has had him feeding former
millionaires who have fallen on massively hard times.

"Almost overnight, they became homeless, without
anywhere to go," he said. “You never know what could happen to you, and
without some kind of support system, you might never get yourself back out of
that."